Willpower Resist Build

[Snarky]

Was going through some necro posts and found a nice discussion on slotting Willpower.  Rather than bring that forward I decided to focus a post on my main question

 

can you build a Willpower Brute that focuses on Resist instead of defense and come up with a viable late game incarnate build?

 

we all know that Def > Res > Heal in building. The toughest builds tend to softcap Def and get high resists as much as they can, it seems

 

however Willpower is that oddball. It does not have Defense Debuff resist at least not enough for late game. Also if you could cap it out like an Invul Brute you would sort of waste it’s great healing powers

 

so why not build to Willpower’s Strength?  Beyond random Defense and what comes with adding Fightings Weave (and the Global Def Uniques?) then do not chase the number. Chase S/L and Energy Resistance and anything that gets through heal from ASAP. This could mean High Health as a Secondary Build goal?

 

just musing. Always loved Willpower.  Just does not seem to serve it well to try to build it like Invul little brother wearing hand me downs.  The set has way different playstyle

[Wiseguy]

While I see where you are coming from, softcapping defense is pretty much always going to result in better survivability than focusing on resists.

 

Additionally, it's not too hard to softcap s/l, melee and 90% resist s/l in a Willpower build. I can provide examples if necessary.

[Nyghtmaire]

I really like the layered nature of a Willpower chassis. My WP brute has 32.5 for all types (S/L/E/N/F/C/P ... yes, psychic too), melee radial hybrid for a defense/Regen boost, Ageless Radial for debuff protection, along with Diagmagnetic Core (up to 20%) and Darkest Night -hit debuff (~15%) for run-of-the-mill faux defense (debuff cushion double duty) and pulling. With high S/L resistance (almost 80%) and Regen (122 health/sec without hybrid, 173 with), it handles a lot in a broad spectrum of cases and damage types. 

 

Overall, it’s a great secondary with many options, cooperating with many primary power sets. 

[Snarky]

2 hours ago, buttbaron said:

While I see where you are coming from, softcapping defense is pretty much always going to result in better survivability than focusing on resists.

 

Additionally, it's not too hard to softcap s/l, melee and 90% resist s/l in a Willpower build. I can provide examples if necessary.

I am sort of interested in capping s/l and energy then getting the other damage resists as high as possible.  Of course I will not ignore defense but move it into a lower priority in the build. Not sure what the math equation is 95% not getting hit is a nice number but huge Regen possible on a Willpower Brute takes the edge off most stuff when you have 90% resists and decent defenses

 

i think my concern is that you cannot count on a Willpower’s defense staying softcapped in high end play.  Rather than shoring up a known squishy armor of Defense why not build a rock hard wall of Resist and push the health/healing armor.  Def > Res > Heal. But 90% Resist > Huge Heal #s > Def %??? Varies floored up again. ?

Edited November 22, 2019 by Snarky

[Haijinx]

You likely can't cap energy resist on a WP brute outside of SOW with anything like a normal build.

 

Not sure even a tanker could 

 

S/L Sure

 

Its likely not necessary.  70 S/L resist, 30 typed def and slotted regen and you are where WP tankers with tough/weave were when the set came out.